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RECALLING THE DAYS OF HITLER'S GERMANY, DR. GUSTAV HEINEMANN, NEW PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC?

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GUESTS AT CEREMONY; HEINEMANN LAYING WREATH; HOOKS ON WHICH VICTIMS WERE HUNG; WREATH ON FLOOR OF PRISON; HEINEMANN SPEAKING. (SOF)

TRANSCRIPT: HEINEMANN: HOW WAS IT POSSIBLE, WE HAVE TO ASK OURSELVES, THAT DURING THE SO-CALLED THIRD REICH MEMBERS OF OUR NATION FOLLOWED A COURSE OF ARROGANCE, RACIAL MADNESS AND DOMINATION. HOW WAS IT POSSIBLE THAT CIVIL LIBERTIES AND HUMAN DIGNITY WERE SO BARBAROUSLY DISREGARDED? WE CANNOT TRY TO ESCAPE FROM THESE QUESTIONS IF WE WANT TO FIND THE ANSWERS. WE HAVE TO REACH DEEPLY BACK INTO THE HISTORY OF EUROPE AND ESPECIALLY OF GERMANY. MANY OTHER NATIONS, TOO, HAVE THEIR PROBLEMS AND WE ARE NOT THE ONLY NATION WHERE RACIALISM AND NATIONALISM WERE PROSPERING.

AS FAR AS THE DEALINGS WITH THE JEWS ARE CONCERNED THERE, ONE OF THE FUNDAMENTAL CAUSES IS THE TWO-THOUSAND-YEAR-OLD CHRISTIAN ANTI-SEMITISM TO WHICH THE SECOND CONSIUIUM OF THE VATICAN HAS PUT AN END FOREVER.

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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: RECALLING THE DAYS OF HITLER'S GERMANY, DR. GUSTAV HEINEMANN, NEW PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY AND A MEMBER OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH'S RESISTANCE MOVEMENT AGAINST HITLER, SAID ON SATURDAY (19 JULY) THAT 'SUCH DISASTER MUST NOT RECUR'. HE WAS SPEAKING AT A CEREMONY AT PLOETZENEE PRISON, WEST BERLIN, COMMEMORATING THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE JULY 1944 ABORTIVE BOMB PLOT AGAINST HITLER, AFTER WHICH THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WERE ARRESTED AND EXECUTED.

MORE THAN 7,000 PEOPLE WERE ARRESTED AND 4,500 EXECUTED, MOST OF THEM BY BEING SUSPENDED FROM MEAT HOOKS AT PLOETZENEE PRISON, IN CONNECTION WITH THE 'GENERAL PLOT', AS IT WAS KNOWN.

THE BOMB ATTEMPT AGAINST HITLER, CARRIED OUT AT HIS 'WOLF'S LAIR' HEADQUARTERS IN EAST PRUSSIA, WAS AIMED AT ESTABLISHING A NEW GERMAN GOVERNMENT AND NEGOTIATING A CEASEFIRE WITH THE ALLIES. BUT HITLER ESCAPED WITH MINOR INJURIES WHEN THE BOMB EXPLODED AGAINST A TABLE LEG, AND THE MAN WHO HAD PLACED IT, COLONEL CLAUS SCHENK, COUNT OF STAUFFENBERG, WAS EXECUTED ALONG WITH SEVERAL OTHER OFFICERS AND GENERALS.

AT THE CEREMONY DR HEINEMANN SAID HITLER'S GERMANY HAD NOT BEEN AN ACCIDENT. HE ADDED THAT A VIOLENT NATIONALISM HAD REARED IN GERMANY SINCE THE FRANCE-PRUSSIAN WAR OF 1870 WHICH HAD AMPLE OPPORTUNITY TO SPEND ITS FURY IN TWO SUBSEQUENT WORLD WARS. HE WENT ON:
THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF GERMANY ALSO MARKED THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE "GENERAL'S PLOT" WITH VARIOUS CEREMONIES ON SATURDAY (JULY 19).